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September 12, 2011

About Face - The Lipstick Bandit

Here's the thing, on August 30th a conversation took place via Twitter between a few beauty bloggers. As conversations are wont to do, the topic shifted from lip products, to lipsticks, to red lipsticks; all the while, we were pointing the finger at someone else for some pretty SRS lemmings. Anyway, the words Lipstick Bandits were thrown around and an idea was born.

So our task was to create a mask look with red lipstick. Here is what I came up with...

Products Used:

NYX Cosmetics Jumbo Eye Pencil - Black

Sleek MakeUP i-Divine Palette - Storm (black eyeshadow)

Maybelline Color Sensational Lip Liner - 10 Clear

Revlon Creme Lipstick - Fire & Ice

Estée Lauder Double Wear Light Foundation - Intensity 3.0

Lancôme Star Bronzer - Éclat Bronze

I started by creating a line across my forehead, dipping down in the middle and at the edges; but I wasn't really happy with the shape. So out of nowhere, I just started making really short strokes around the edges to create a "feathery" look. Satisfied, I then filled in the (very large) gap and patted some black eyeshadow on the patchier areas.

After that, I applied foundation in the areas where my skin was visible and applied bronzer to the hollows of my cheeks. Then I applied clear lipliner, outlined my lips with Fire & Ice with a lip pencil brush and filled in the rest of my lips straight from the tube.

Et voilà, one Lipstick Bandit look!

I created this look on the 3rd, after waking up (rather late) to a flash of inspiration. It came about pretty quickly actually. I was rather pleased with the look, but I started doubting myself the day after. Should I have made it more complicated? Something flashier? So I started racking my brain for some better ideas but none would come. Also, I became rather attached to this look...

I think I learned an important lesson in creativity: sometimes you just have to trust your gut. I like the simplicity of this look; I like the greasy quality of the mask, I like that it's literally rough around the edges... It's like my Lipstick Bandit persona is the novice: young, brash and needs a lot of work :p.